THERE are questions being asked in Holland about Virgil van Dijk.

Yes, he's a decent footballer, but can he really play football?

The Dutch are funny that way. For them, unlike us, there is little of worth in a centre-half's ability to boot the ball into Row Z of the stand when the opposition pose a threat or emerge from a 50-50 challenge with part of the centre-forward's eyeball hanging off the end of his studs.

They like passing the ball to each other. They like Cruyff turns. They are still wrapped up in all that 1970s stuff about players being comfortable in all positions of the park.

Van Dijk has attracted clear interest through his displays for Celtic since arriving from Groningen in the summer of 2013 and has a bit of all that in his locker, but the raging debate over whether he should have gone to the World Cup with his national team has yet to result in him being awarded a cap.

Likewise, for all the talk of Arsenal and Manchester City, he is still at Parkhead. Offers of £8m and upwards have been mooted, yet the odds remain in favour of him still being in snowy Glasgow when the transfer window closes.

There is, then, a clear incentive for him to use this Sunday's League Cup semi-final with Rangers as a platform. If you can keep a cool head, put your foot on the ball and stroke it around with ease amid the blood and thunder of an Old Firm game, your agent really does have something special to add to your CV.

Many have tried it. Plenty have failed. Obvious questions can be asked about the quality of the Rangers team that will serve as the opposition at Hampden Park, but this is a game to test the mettle of any man and to win it through ball-playing rather than battling would be something to take note of, indeed.

"In Holland, we have some doubts about Virgil," explained the former Rangers forward, Ronald de Boer. "Some people say he should get a chance with the national team. Some people still have doubts. Others say that Ajax, PSV Eindhoven or Feyenoord should buy him.

"In Holland, people still question his skills on the ball. Over there, it is important to keep the ball and play it to a jersey of the same colour. It is not just about defending, but his all-round game.

"That is what I heard and I can't comment too much because I have not seen him regularly, but he is doing well and he is on the radar.

"There are doubters out there. I think he has potential to make the next step in Europe.

"Celtic, of course, are still a big club, but I think he can succeed in the Premiership."

In de Boer's mind, proving he can handle the high-octane atmosphere of an Old Firm encounter is something that would add to van Dijk's attractiveness to bigger clubs, no matter what they may think of the general standard of the game in this country.

He played in countless Barcelona-Real Madrid match-ups, he played in two World Cups, he went with Ajax into the bearpit of Feyenoord's De Kuip in Rotterdam. None of that compares to what he experienced against Celtic during his four years at Ibrox.

"I played in El Clasico and Ajax-Feyenoord and that is crazy, but there is no comparison with the Old Firm game," he stated.

"It has so much more emotion in it. I wouldn't say the football is better. It definitely isn't. However, the intensity is incredible and that makes it special.

"I adapted to it right away at Rangers and I was never nervous, although a little nerves were good.

"I had played in World Cups and big games. When you are 21, it might have been different, but I was 28 or 29 when I came to Rangers."

For van Dijk among others, this will be the first taste of the Glasgow derby. And what a first taste it will be with Rangers and Celtic having gone almost three years without locking horns.

"That might be a factor for a lot of players," said de Boer. "They might not understand the importance of the Old Firm fixture.

"It is up to the coach to inform them well and prepare them to perform.

"You must be objective and say that Celtic is the favourite, but that creates more pressure on them.

"They will be heavily criticised if they don't win because they are the Premiership team and that is something they will have to carry with them.

"Rangers, basically,have nothing to lose.

"Cup games are strange and this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make the fans happy for a long time."

De Boer, of course, was back in Glasgow last weekend to take part in a benefit match for his former team-mate Fernando Ricksen, now battling with the crippling effects of motor neurone disease.

Rangers, of course, is a very different club from the one he left behind in 2004. Happiness is not a word you would commonly associate with their support.

"I had such a great time at Rangers and it does hurt to see the club like this," he said.

"I have got so much respect from the supporters and the people who worked here. To see a club like that go down so badly is very sad.

"You never expect a club like Rangers, a club of such magnitude, to fall down like that.

"Rangers is a giant. I have always said that, if Rangers and Celtic were in the English Premier League, they would be as big as Manchester United because they have the fanbase.

"If Rangers and Celtic were in England and built 80,000 seater stadia, there would be 80,000 there every week.

"Rangers and Celtic are special clubs and they have so many fans throughout the world. In Rangers' case, those fans are born with a blue nose and they die with a blue nose. It is a shame that it has gone this far with Rangers.

"They need a good structure and foundation and then they can build up to being a healthy club. That is what has to be done now. It is not a case of trying to get back up there too quickly.

"The structure has to be good from the bottom up, always. If not, then it is only temporary."